Happy Holidays....

I am extra stoked to hear that there is a possibility of more snow in the future! The super experts over at GNFAC predicted some LA NINA today!!!

my last turns (Dec 21st?) were extra deep, i wanted to get over to Cooke, but that will have to waits til '12....

So the most consistent ski zone (near Bozeman) the last few weeks has been....history rock?

http://vimeo.com/34276878

I skied down the meadow the other day with Mike and Trevor ...they were going laughably slow with their old, broke off skinny skis :-) You traditionalists make me sick, and i will stick with my shiny new gear.



happy holidays to all my real friends and family...I am off to the front range to see Ween for nye. Kind of wish I was going to see this band in that year, but I have been a ween fan for the last 3 decades. sigh


-ty

McClusky Mountain Crag

Exploring the climbing potential in the Butte Boulder Batholith

Mclusky mountain is up there, with a handful of splitter lines. December 15th proved to be to cold and dark to actually enjoy the climbing, but the stone is highly weathered and solid!

The horrible approach made for some funny complaining and ensured I would not be ready for the next day's ski traverse of Sheep Creek.

Trevor "Dr. Send" Bowman, DFA. (doctor of first ascents)

Nice corner that requires some wide gear...a couple 5's and an old 4?

Scrappy exploring in Sheep Creek, Madison Range...

Sage Peak and Redstreak Peak.

Alex on the outrun.

Steep stuff of Sheep Mountain.

Nice looking 1000 foot ridge studded with buttresses like this. Looked to be gneiss? 

 This couloir looked...

Good to Go!

With the semester of mind bending science behind me, I am able to explore more. Nice looking ski terrain here!

The snowpack is still 100% facets/hoar...making for interesting exits and bruised bodies and skis.

Early Bird Turns!

Early Bird Turns near West Yellowstone, MT....Heads up snowpack this year. Wind+transportable snow= avalanches. Nick Stayner is pictured intentionally initiating a collapse (expected). The 2000+ foot runs visible near Hegben lake may have to wait a while.

Facet Schuss by Alex and Georgia Brown

Interesting crystal formation in calm and protected areas, making for a wintery feel..... The small amount of snow that blankets our mountains is slowly dying via sublimation and faceting morphology. Makes for consistent density, each and every turn. Heres to a great winter. Pray to the La Nina goddess!

Scrap-tastic approach complete with luge-esque exit has been the norm in the mountains around Bozeman. We need a little snow.

Late Summer Adventures

Lte summer/early fall has been the adventure of a lifetime. In late september i stood on Elephant peak and saw the sunset on every mountain range in the northern yellowstone ecosystem, and then rode out on the bike.... I have been using skis and a mountain bike to get around in the mountains, and here are a few videos:

http://vimeo.com/30329286

http://vimeo.com/29914315

13.1 what?

13.1 read the sticker on some woman's car at the gas station...that number needs a unit. I am diligent to include units on the reports and figure i produce, mostly because i spend a bit of my day looking at old reports that don't contain units, attempting to figure out what their spread sheets and graphs mean....it makes me wonder how presenting these graphs must have went...."as you can see, our monthly supply rises an unknown amount as the graph moves from left to right."

the woman bought $18 in lotto tics....maybe 13.1 is how many dollars she spends on the lottery every week....she could just put the money in the bank and pretend she won the $60000 jackpot that pays of in 30 years

Winter Break 2010-2011

Minus 5 temps...hair and wool fibers frozen

Saddle and Bridger peaks in the southern Bridger range
Two climbers clipped in on 'the dribbles' (WI4), a multipitch ice climb in hyalite canyon...
The same climbers...
...still visible as a speck on the wall.

Winter break 2010-2011 has been fun...Time off from school to hang with my family and enjoy the rocky mountains is always good. I ice climbed and skied every day for a month (almost), and that provides for a lot of adventure. ...Since this blog is supposed to be about science and adventure, some parameters that comes into play when climbing and skiing in the winter months has a lot to do with the condition of solid water in the form of snow and ice. Mass and phase (of water), air temperature, wind velocity/direction must all be judged to gain perspective on conditions, not to mention the rates and time values of these parameters ...not that that this is super difficult...bozeman and other mountain towns teem with amateur snow scientists, and some of them even get into it and get degrees.

Thanks again to all my climbing and ski partners and my family and friends for hanging with me and enjoying the winter holiday! (sorry no pics of me with the fam, just a few mountain images...note the climbers in the last 3 images as it zooms out, to see the scale of the mountains)